Jo Young, who owns Wits End Farm in Mansfield, ON, with Bill McKeen, reveals the results of an Ontario Horse Trials Association member survey –  researched and conducted by Katie Holman and presented to EC and the OHTA in November – and examines the state of eventing in the province, including the perception that entry fees are a cash grab by organizers.

Katie Holman: Last year was a very difficult one for eventing in Ontario. Most events that were scheduled as two-day events all dropped down to one-day, with the exception of one horse trial in May. Overall entries dropped by almost 500 in 2016, to 3,201 from 3,712 in 2015. At the Board of Directors meeting in February it was noted that as of January 31, 2017, there were 399 members as follows: 302 senior, 97 junior and 0 associate. This is a decrease of 111 members over the same period in the prior year.

A decline that significant could not be ignored and it was time we tried to determine why. We conducted a membership survey asking for feedback regarding the state of the sport:

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